As one beholds through a small window
A single green leaf a small patch of the vast blue sky,
So I began to percieve Thee, in the beginning of
All things,
As the leaf faded and withered, the patch covered as with
Dark cloud,
So didst Thou fade and vanish,
But to be reborn again,
As the single green leaf, as the small patch of the blue sky.
For many lives I have seen the bleak winter and the
Green spring,
Prisoned in my little room,
I could not behold the entire tree nor the whole sky.
I swore there was no tree nor the vast sky-
That was the truth.
Through time and destruction
My window grew large.
I beheld,
Now,
A branch with many leaves,
And a greater patch of the blue, with many clouds.
I forgot the single green leaf, the small patch of the vast blue.
I swore there was no tree, nor the immense sky-
That was the truth.
Weary of this prison,
This small cell,
I raged at my window.
With bleeding fingers
I tore away brick after brick, I beheld,
Now,
The entire tree, its great trunk,
Its many branches, and its thousand leaves,
And an immense part of the sky.
I swore there was no other tree, no other part to the sky-
That was the truth.
This prison no longer holds me,
I flew away through the window,
O friend,
I behold every tree and the vast expanse of the limitless sky,
Though I live in every single leaf and in every small
patch of the vast blue sky,
Though I live in every prison, looking out through every
small casement,
Liberated am I.
Lo! not a thing shall bind me-
This is the truth.
-The Search, 1927
Jiddu Krishnamurti
